Railway signaling apparatus



Feb. 7, 1933. g H PETER 1,896,370

RAILWAY SIGNALING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 17, 1931 Patented Feb. 7, 1933UNITED STATES" PATENT" OFFICE LESLIE HURST PETER, OF LONDON, ENGLAND,ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO

THE UNION SWITCH & SIGNAL COMPANY, OF

PORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA i RAILWAY SIGNALING, APPARATUS Applicationfiled October 17, 1931, Serial No. 569,458, and in Great BritainOctober29, 1930. Y

My invention relates to railway signaling apparatus of the kind in whichthe signal comprises a movable semaphore arm or spectacle or both, and acontinuously illuminated signal lamp adapted to be suppliedwithoperating current from an alternating current supply circuit, whichare arranged to cooperate to give the necessary signal indications.

The invention has for its object to provide improved arrangements forelectrically indlcating at the point of control the position of thesignal arm or spectacle and whether-or not the lamp is properlyoperative.

According to the principal feature of the invention the indicatingdevice at the .point ofcontrol which device is of thedirect currentpolarized type is arranged tobe supplied with unidirectional operatingcurrentthrough indication conductors leading'tothe signal fromthe pointof control, this current being derived from the signal lam circuit bymeans of fullor half-wave recti ers.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in theaccompanyingdrawing of which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view of a signal comprisinga semaphore arm or spectacle and provided with a system of indicationsembodying one form of the invention. Figures 2, 3 and 1 illustratemodified forms of the electrical arrangements of the system of Fig ure1, and Figure illustrates the invention as applied to a signal providedwith an aux iliary signal lamp. I i

" Referring now first to the apparatus illustrated in Figure 1 it willbe seen that the signal comprises a semaphore arm 1 and a spectacle arm2 combined with a continuously illuminated signal lamp 3 supplied withcurrent from the secondary winding 4 of a transformer 5, the primarywinding 6 of which is connected to an alternating current supplycircuit. v

A suitable series resistance is included'in the circuit of the lamp 3,the terminals or suitable points .in the'r'esistance 7 beingo'onnectedby conductors 8, 9 to the in-put terminals of a full-wave rectifier 10comprising four rectifying units or sets of units arranged in thewell-known bridge connection.

The out-put terminals of the rectifier 10 are connected by means ofconductors 13, 14

to a pair of indication conductors 11, 12, eX-

tending to the signal from the point of control through a circuitbreaker device 15 operated by the signal arm l. The circuit breakaerdevice comprisescontact arms 17, 18 so are ranged that when, thesignal arm 1 and the spectacle 2 move from the normal or stop positionshown, tothe reverse or proceed device 15connect the conductors 13, 14:to the indication conductors 11, 12 respectively so SWISSVALE,PENNSYLVANIALA conthat current of positive polarity is supplied to theseconductors whereas when the signal 7 moves to its reverse or proceedposition the contact arms 17, 18 connect the conductors 1 1, 13 to theindication conductors, 11, 12, respectively so that current 01":negative polarity is supplied to theconductors 11, 12.

Atthe point of control an indicating device 19 is provided and adaptedto occupy one or other of three different positions according to whetherthe indication conductors 11, 12 are deenergized or are supplied withcurrent of positive or negative polarity. Under normal conditions, thatis to say, when the signal arm 1 is in its stop position, the current ofpositive polarity supplied to the indication conductors 11, 12 willcause the indicating device 19. to give the indication signal on whilewhen thesignal arm 1 is moved to its reverse position, indicatingproceed, the indicating device'19 at the point of control willcorrespondingly indicate signal off.

In the event of the signal arm 1' or the spectacle 2 occupying any otherposition vthe connection of the rectifier 10 to the indicationconductors 11, 12 will evidently be interrupted at the contact arms 1718 of the circuit breaker device 15, with the result that the tionconductors 11, 12 will also be evidently deenergized in the event offailure of the circuit of the lamp 3 since under these conditionsReferring now to the indication system shown in Figure 2 separateindication devices 19, for the signal arm 1 or spectacle 2 and for thelamp 3 are provided. The indicating device 20 for the lamp 3 is similarto that above described, a series'resistance 7 being connected in thelamp circuit, the terminals or intermediate points in this resistancebeing connected by conductors 21, 22 to the in-put terminals of afull-wave rectifier 23; The out-put terminals of the rectifier 23 are directly connected to a pair of indication conductors 24, 25 leading tothe point of control and the lamp indicating device 20 is connected tothese conductors and is adapted to give one or other of two indicationsaccording to whether the device 20 is energized or not. So long as thecircuit of the lamp 3 is intact and current for illuminating the lamp isbeing properly supplied thereto, the rectified current supplied to theindication conductors 24,25 will cause the lamp indicating device 20 tobe enerigized and to give an indication lamp in, whereas any failure in,the lamp circuit or in the source of supply thereto will cause theindication conductors 24, 25 to be deenergized so that the indicatingdevice 20 will give the indication lamp out. The other device 19 forindicating the position of i v the signal arm 1 or spectacle 2 issimilar to 40 that described with reference to Figure 1 and is connectedto the signal by the indication conductors 11, 12 which are connected tothe signal through the circuit breaker device 15 operated by the signalarm 1 and the fullwave rectifier 10 which is supplied with current froma second secondary winding 26 on the transformer 5 through which thesignal lamp S is supplied with current. The indicating device 19willaccordingly give an indication signal arm on oi signal arm off,according to whether the circuit breaker device 15 connects therectifier conductors 13,14 to the indication conductors 11, 12 in thenormal or reverse direction, while in the event of the signal arm 1 orthe spectacle 2 occupying any other position the indicating device 19will be deenergized and willindicate signal wrong.

Referring now to the system shown in Figure 3. the circuit breakerdevice 15 is provided with only a single contact arm 16. The

' indication conductor 11 is directly connected to one terminal of theseries resistance 7 in the circuit of the lamp 3 while the otherindication conductor 12 is connected through the contact arm 16 of thecircuit breaker device 15 to one or other of two oppositely arrangedhalf-wave rectifiers 27, 28 which are connected to7the other terminal ofthe series resistance 1 I With this arrangement it will be evident thatcurrent is supplied from the series resistance 7 through the rectifier27 or the rec-. tifier 23 to the indication conductors 11, 12, accordingto whether the signal arm 1 occupies its stop or proceed position.

Referring now to the system shown in Figure 4 the series resistanceutilized in the system of the preceding figures is replaced by a pair ofcurrent transformers 29, 30, the primaries 31, 32 of which are connectedin the circuit of the lamp 3 while their secondary windings 33, 34 areconnected to the in-put terminals of two full-wave rectifiers 35, 36respectively. I

The out-put terminal 37 of the rectifier 35 and the opposite out-putterminal 38 of the rectifier 36 are connected directly to the indicationconductor 12 while the out-put ter: minal 39 of the rectifier 35 or theout-put terminal 40 of the rectifier 36 is arranged to be connected tothe indication conductor 11 according to-whether the contact arm 16 ofthe circuit breaker device 15 is in the position shown correspondingtothe stop position ofthe signal arm or'in its opposite or proceedposition. a

In the former case current of positive polarity will evidently besupplied through the rectifier 35 to the indication conductors 11, 12whereas in the latter case these conductors will be supplied withcurrent of negative polarity through the rectifier 36.

Referring now to the system shown in Figure 5 the signal is shown asprovided with an auxiliary lamp 41 adapted to replace the lamp 3 in theevent of the latter failing for any reason. The main lamp is arranged tobe supplied with current from the secondary winding 4 of a transformer5, the primary winding 6 of which is connected to supply circuitconductors 42, 43, one 43 of which serves asa return conductor for theindication device 19. The circuit of the lamp 3' includes the'winding ofa relay 44, across the terminals of which a rectifier 45 is connectedand the contact arm 46 of the relay 44 is 'arranged to engage with afixed contact 47 so long as the relay is-energizedwhereas when the relayis deenergized the contact arm 46 engages with a fixed contact 48.

In operation it will be understood that so long as the lamp 3 is intactand operative, the relay 44 is energized by unidirectional current owingto the provision of the rectifier 45. The indication circuit is thuscompleted through the contact arm 46 and contact 47 of the relay 44.- Inthe event, however of failure of the lamp 3the'relay 44-is deenergizedand a circuit is completed from the transformer winding 4 to theauxiliary lamp 4C1 by way of contact arm 46 and contact 18 of the relay14. The lamp 41 is thus supplied with operating current but theindication circuit being interrupted, the indication device 19 isdeenergized so as to. indicate the failure of the main lamp 3.

The rectifiers employed as above described are preferably of the metalcompound type described in the specification of British Patent No.194,653.

It will be understood that any of the arrangements above described inwhich halfwave rectifiers are employed may, if desired, be modified sothat each rectifier is arranged to by-pass alternate half-waves of thealternating current instead of transmitting these half-waves, the efiectin either case being to supply a unidirectional pulsating current to theindication conductors.

The invention is evidently not limited to the particular arrangementsdescribed and illustrated by way of example which may be modified invvarious respects without exceeding the scope of the invention.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my saidinvention and in what manner the same is to be per formed, declare thatwhat I claim is:

1. Railway signaling apparatus compris-' ing a movable semaphore arm orspectacle and a continuously illuminated signal lamp adapted to besupplied with operating current from an alternating current supplycircuit in which an electrical indicating device of the direct currentpolarized type is provided at the point of control and is arranged to besupplied with unidirectional operating current through indicationconductors, this current being derived from the signal lamp circuitthrough one or more rectifiers, for the purpose specified.

2. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which therectifier or rectifiers is arranged to be connected to the indicationconductors through a circuit breaker device operated in accordance withthe position of the semaphore arm or spectacle, for the purposespecified.

3. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which thecurrent supplied to the indication conductors is arranged to be derivedfrom a resistance connected in the signal lamp circuit, for the purposespecified.

4. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which thecurrent supplied to the indication conductors is arranged to be derivedfrom the secondary winding or windings of a series transformer ortransformers the primary winding or windings of which is connected inthe signal lamp circuit, for the purpose specified.

5. Railway signaling apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which therectifier orv rectifiers are arranged to be connected to the indicationconductors through a circuit breaker device operated in accordance withthe position of the semaphore arm or spectacle, and in which theindication conductors are arranged to be connected through the circuitbreaker device to one or other of two oppositely connected full orhalf-wave rectifiers, for the and means operated by said semaphore for'causing said current to be of one polarity or the other according to theposition of the semaphore.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

LESLIE HURST PETER.

